General

LimeCulture is pleased to share new guidance for professionals working with people with Learning Disabilities who have experienced sexual violence and abuse as part of the National ISVA Co-ordinator (NISVAC) Service pilot.

The NISVAC Service has been working in partnership with national learning disability organisations, local projects, professionals and ISVA services to identify the practical challenges and barriers for victims/survivors of sexual violence with learning disabilities in accessing sexual violence support services.

Building on existing research, we found that many victims/survivors of sexual violence with learning disabilities are not being referred to, or are not readily able to access specialist sexual violence services. This is, in part, driven by the lack of information about the support available, and the confidence of disability organisations in enabling and encouraging their clients to access support provided by Independent Sexual Violence Adviser (ISVA) services. In addition, ISVAs have also told us that they often feel they lack the experience, confidence and skills to respond to the needs of victims/survivors with learning disabilities.

LimeCulture has created this resource, developed with input from learning disability organisations and ISVA services, to raise awareness of local ISVA Services among disability organisations, and to support disability organisations to strengthen their internal processes to ensure appropriate referrals are made for the individuals they support.

The pathway resource aims to support organisations and professionals working with individuals with learning disabilities to:

• Respond to and support those who may have experienced sexual violence and abuse
• Identify and access sexual violence pathways of support local to the victim/survivor
• Improve access to Independent Sexual Violence Adviser (ISVA) services
• Strengthen internal processes and local partnerships with sexual violence support services.

Download the   Guidance for professionals working with people with Learning Disabilities

Holli Waterson, National ISVA Co-ordinator for the NISVAC Service, said:

“It is an important principle that all victims and survivors, including those with learning disabilities, can access the support from an ISVA services where they have experienced sexual violence or abuse. The organisations and professionals who work with or support people with learning disabilities have a key part to play in ensuring a seamless pathway to support from an ISVA service.

However, we know from the work we’ve been doing that professionals don’t always know what to do when people have experienced sexual abuse. Their knowledge of local ISVA services may also be limited and therefore referrals that could be made, are not – meaning that people with learning disabilities do not always get the specialist support they need following sexual abuse.

The purpose of this pathway guide is to provide information to support professionals to make referrals to ISVA services. By raising awareness of ISVA services among professionals and organisations, we hope to increase the number of victims/survivors with learning disabilities getting the specialist support they need.”

Through the National ISVA Co-ordinator Service pilot, LimeCulture has established a Professional Network for ISVAs to share knowledge, best practice and expertise when supporting clients with learning disabilities.

To better support ISVAs to respond to clients who have learning disabilities, we have also developed an accredited, 2-day training course for ISVAs to appropriately meet the needs of clients with learning disabilities and neurodiverse conditions. The first course takes place on 12 and 13 April 2022 – you can find out more information, including how to register, here

About NISVAC

The NISVAC Service pilot was commissioned by Operation Hydrant in 2020 to support victims/survivors of sexual abuse from identified hard-to-reach, or seldom heard, groups with a pathway into support from an ISVA service and/or access to the criminal justice system, in recognition of the additional barriers they face. 

The National ISVA Advice Line is available Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm – 0800 246 5260 or by email NISVAC@limeculture.co.uk

 

LimeCulture’s Independent Accreditation Programme is now open for applications for a new cohort of services to seek accreditation against the Male Survivors Partnership (MSP) Quality Standards for Services Supporting Male Victims/Survivors of Sexual Violence.

The application window will close on Monday 14 March.

Stephanie Reardon, Chief Executive of LimeCulture, said

“The MSP’s Quality Standards are a critical tool for improving support for male victims of sexual violence – we’re therefore delighted to open Wave 9 of the accreditation programme today. We feel privileged at LimeCulture to be able to work with so many services to improve the quality of their provision, and are always hugely impressed by services’ creativity and commitment to the best possible outcomes for their male clients.”

Since it was launched in April 2018, the Independent Accreditation Programme has been opened to 8 waves of services supporting male victims/survivors of sexual violence from across England and Wales. To date, 40 services have successfully achieved the Quality Mark, and 5 more services are working towards it.

Neil Henderson, Chief Executive of Safeline, said:

“Pursuing independently accredited best practice quality standards is a strategic priority for Safeline. We are an inclusive organisation and want to ensure any survivor accessing our services gets the support they want and need. The Male Quality Standards (MQS) are critical to delivering that goal.

“Comparing our service against best practice standards immediately identified numerous opportunities to improve our support for male survivors. External verification that our support for male survivors meets the MQS has led to an increase in males accessing our services: they are confident that the support they will receive is high quality.

Having external experts assess your services as meeting best practice standards has created a real sense of professional pride within the charity and has helped us retain and recruit staff. Commissioners are increasingly aware of how important the MQS are in supporting male survivors and more are making it a condition of any bid for funds. Meeting the standards has helped us secure additional funds to support more male survivors.”

Safeline holds the Quality Mark for its helpline, ISVA and counselling provision.

To apply

To apply, or to request a bespoke quotation for your service/organisation, e-mail us at accreditation@limeculture.co.uk. Places on the programme are limited and will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.

Services enrolling will need to be available for a virtual Accreditation Workshop on Thursday 31 March.

You can find more information about the Accreditation programme, costs, and our Terms and Conditions here.

We will also be opening applications for the Quality Standards for ISVA Services within the next month – watch this space!

 

 

 

LimeCulture is delighted to be working closely with Cambridgeshire Police, the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner, and Cambridgeshire Rape Crisis over the next 16 months to capture the views and experiences of adult victims/survivors of rape who are engaging with Cambridgeshire Police and accessing local ISVA support.

We’ll be undertaking a series of interviews with victims/survivors at key points during their criminal justice journey to better understand whether they have felt respected, supported and safe; what has been done well; and where improvements can be made. Victims/survivors will be asked for their consent to participate in the research and can withdraw at any time.

LimeCulture has long-standing experience of engaging sensitively with victims/survivors from across the country through our extensive service review and consultancy work. We believe speaking directly to victims/survivors of all ages, and understanding their views, expectations and experiences is not only key to tackling the barriers individuals’ face in seeking support and seeking justice; but also to putting victims’ voices at the forefront of shaping better services.

Through this project, victims/survivors of rape will be able to share their views and experiences freely and confidentially with LimeCulture. To ensure no one can be individually identified, we will share key feedback themes with the Police and support services to enable them to make any necessary improvements to their services and ways of working.

Sam Whyte, Director of Consultancy Services at LimeCulture, said: “We are pleased to be supporting this work to respond locally to the Government’s end-to-end review of rape, and are excited to see the changes that may result when victims’ voices are put at the heart of service delivery.”

Read the press release from the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner for Cambridgshire

For further information please contact cambs.feedback@limeculture.co.uk

 

 

 

 

Recent conferences on changing culture within sport, ‘National Plan for Sport, Health and Wellbeing’ published by the House of Lords (Dec 2021) and feedback from Safeguarding Officers, have all identified the critical role that senior leaders play in influencing the development of a safeguarding culture within sport.

Unfortunately, we have seen that despite having policies and processes in place, perpetrators of abuse can find opportunities to prevail.  Key to putting up barriers to abuse, is the culture of an organisation, and this is led from the top.  Safeguarding must be a priority throughout every level and function of each sport, and this will ensure that children and adults are more likely to be able to enjoy and achieve.

Working in collaboration with Sport England, LimeCulture has developed a half day workshop for CEO’s, Senior Leaders and Board Members to support their knowledge and understanding of integrating safeguarding at a strategic level across sport. Designed to complement the Lead Safeguarding Officer Development Programme this workshop will equip Leaders with the knowledge and skills to ensure safeguarding underpins the services and programs delivered across their sport through:

• Highlighting the key overarching legislative duties for safeguarding in sport, and the importance;
• Exploring how safeguarding sits within a sporting organisation’s Mission and Values, and why;
• Considering the prevalence of abuse in sport from recent research;
• Describing the purpose of a strategic plan and the requirement for safeguarding to be a key factor;
• Recognising the importance of budgeting for a safeguarding provision.

Sport England will provide up to 2 funded places for each National Governing Body’s in England who receive funding from Sport England for senior leaders to attend the Workshop taking place on 16^th February 2022, 9.30am -12.30. Please note- Maximum numbers apply for this Workshop & places will be allocated on a first come first served basis.

For further information about booking places on this Workshop please email Annabel.timmins@limeculture.co.uk

Following recent concerns about the prevalence of sexual violence and sexual harassment amongst children and young people in school and college settings, LimeCulture has spent the last 6-9 months working hard to develop a Model of support that allows schools and colleges to provide a whole school approach to responding to sexual misconduct (including sexual violence and abuse, sexual harassment, peer on peer and harmful sexual behaviour).

Since 2014, LimeCulture has been working extensively with universities and higher education institutions to improve their response to sexual misconduct through a range of training and consultancy services. To date we have supported more than 70 universities across England, Wales and Scotland, and as such, have an excellent understanding of the actions required to make improvements to the way that staff and students are supported following a report of sexual misconduct. Our Sexual Violence Liaison Officer (SVLO) Model was piloted within Keele University and University of Greenwich in 2015; and this ground breaking model of support has now been adopted by more than 60 universities.

LimeCulture has recently begun to work with a range of schools and colleges to support them to provide a whole school approach to responding to children and young people who have experienced sexual misconduct and building on the learning from our work with universities, we have developed the Sexual Misconduct Liaison Officer (SMLO) Model of support for schools and colleges. The SMLO Model was piloted by The Perse School in Cambridge – an Independent School we were delighted to work closely with to design and test the SMLO Model – and in November 2021, we delivered specialist accredited training to a carefully selected cadre of The Perse School’s  (incredible!) staff to provide them with the competence and confidence to support to young people who either report sexual misconduct or are reported against.

Crucially, the SMLO Model places sexual misconduct within the strategic safeguarding response of schools, in line with statutory duties, providing the infrastructure to embed the SMLO Model into existing safeguarding structures with 4 key benefits:

1. Children and young people have a recognised point of contact at school who has the skills, knowledge and training to respond to incidents of sexual misconduct,
2. Staff recognise that there are specialists within the school or college who can support them if they are approached, receive information or a disclosure of sexual misconduct from a child or young person is made,
3. External stakeholders know that there are staff within the school or college who can assist them in supporting victims of sexual misconduct,
4. The SMLO Model does not require the appointment of new staff or creation of new posts – instead utilising existing staff from across the school/colleges to become upskilled with specialist knowledge and competencies, providing a whole school approach to the prevention of and response to sexual violence and misconduct.

From January 2022, LimeCulture will be working with more schools and colleges to support them to implement a whole school approach to responding to sexual misconduct by embedding the SMLO Model. Please get in touch with LimeCulture’s Safeguarding Team by emailing us if you’d like to know more about the work we are doing with schools and colleges. We’d love to hear from you!

Email us – schoolsandcolleges@limeculture.co.uk

If you’d like us to contact you – please complete the form below and we’ll get in touch with you!

 

Last week LimeCulture hosted the first Network for ISVAs focusing on supporting those with learning disabilities. The Network meeting was attended by 40 ISVAs from 32 different ISVA services across the country and provided the opportunity for ISVAs to come together to share ideas, discuss challenges and identify solutions to better support people with learning disabilities who have experienced sexual violence and abuse.

The Network meeting was chaired by LimeCulture’s National ISVA Coordinator, Holli Waterson. Holli is responsible for the National ISVA Coordinator (NISVAC) Service, which was commissioned by Operation Hydrant as part of a national initiative to provide victims/survivors of sexual abuse from specific hard-to-reach, or seldom heard, groups with a pathway into support from an ISVA service and/or access to the criminal justice system, in recognition of the additional barriers they face.

The NISVAC service was established in 2020 and has recently expanded to also support victims/survivors with learning disabilities. Victim/survivors from this group are disproportionately affected by sexual violence, yet offenders are less likely to be brought to justice and victims/survivors are less likely to access support.

LimeCulture has been working with several national disability organisations to identify barriers in referring clients with learning difficulties or disabilities who may have experienced sexual assault or abuse, and to create pathways within their services to specialist local and national support. Raising awareness of the existence of local ISVA Services among disability organisations and seeking to strengthen their internal processes to enable appropriate referrals has been key to Holli’s recent work.

The first meeting of the Network took place on Thursday 14 October. It proved to be a great space for ISVAs across the country to come together and support one another to develop their practice in working with clients with learning disabilities. LimeCulture also arranged for Association for Real Change to attend the Network to talk to the ISVAs attending about their recent UsToo Project. ARC is a leading umbrella body representing service providers in the learning disability sector – whose purpose is to improve the quality of life for people who have a learning disability by supporting anyone who is involved in the planning or delivery of support and services.

Holli Waterson, National ISVA Coordinator said:

“I’m delighted by the range of ISVA services who joined the first Network Meeting. The Network provides a unique opportunity for ISVA services to come together and share experiences and challenges with our professional peers to help ensure our specialist sexual violence services are able to meet the needs of clients with learning disabilities”

An ISVA Service Manager also said:

“the sharing of knowledge and practice, and the opportunity for discussion and peer support is invaluable when it comes to improving service delivery to all survivors, but particularly those groups where additional barriers exist”.

LimeCulture is in the process of developing specific training for ISVAs working with victims/survivors with learning disabilities. This will be available in the coming months.

LimeCulture would like to thank all the ISVAs who attended the first Network meeting. We are keen to welcome every ISVA service to join the Network. For more information about the Network, please contact Holli Holli.Waterson@LimeCulture.co.uk

 

About NISVAC

The NISVAC Service was commissioned by Operation Hydrant to support victims/survivors of sexual abuse from specific hard-to-reach, or seldom heard, groups with a pathway into support from an ISVA service and/or access to the criminal justice system, in recognition of the additional barriers they face. 

The National ISVA Advice Line is available Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm – 0800 246 5260 or by email NISVAC@limeculture.co.uk

 

 

 

 

 

Between 2018-2021, the Home Office – through their Transformation Fund – funded a 3 year pilot project in Lancashire to place Independent Sexual Violence Advisers (ISVAs) within a hospital setting with the intention of increasing access to ISVA service provision for victims/survivors of sexual violence and abuse.

Professional development in safeguarding in sport can be difficult to navigate, with different sectors, models and people’s own experience shaping the response.  Internationally different legislation, and guidance – and even a lack of legislation and guidance – has led to a disjointed and fragmented response, when it is clear the issues of abuse in sport are similar world-wide.  There are examples of children, young people and adults being abused across the globe and a united, consistent and robust response will support organisations with closing the gaps, reducing opportunities for offenders and help create safer and positive experiences for participants in sport.

The aim of this project is to produce an international framework that sporting organisations can use to inform the professional development of their Safeguarding in Sport Leads.  LimeCulture is excited to be working with stakeholders from the sport sector across the world and with Professor Mike Hartill.

There are currently a number of organisations and Government agencies around the world delivering or developing training offers for safeguarding lead officers, but there is no academic pathway into the profession.  The framework will aim to provide a consistent and coherent professional development pathway, covering core topics and lead to unification within the profession.  By working with key stakeholders, we will develop an approach for organisations delivering training and recipients of the training to support and implement standardised practice.

If you or your organisation is interested in contributing to this project, please email sport@limeculture.co.uk

 

 

Hearing the accounts of victims, survivors and those with lived experience of abuse in sport is agonising.  Sport should be a safe place for children, young people and adults at risk to feel part of something good, be in a team, achieve goals and make friends.  We have heard numerous accounts from victims, we have read the headlines and watched the documentaries.

At LimeCulture, we know that abuse in sport not only has a devastating, traumatic and long lasting impact on the victims and their families, but affects their team mates, staff and volunteers.  Long term, participation numbers may be affected and the sport will be impacted by a loss of trust and damage to reputation.

What we need to do now is make meaningful changes and introduce a culture where safeguarding is a priority in sport to limit the opportunities for abuse and start to learn lessons.  Safeguarding needs to be about prevention as well as responding to concerns when they arise but all too often we are poorly prepared when abuse is uncovered. Case Reviews have shown that senior leaders in sporting organisations have enabled abuse to occur through inaction and failures to promote a culture of safeguarding.

Recognising the need to support sports to prioritise safeguarding, LimeCulture has responded to demand from the sport sector by developing a workshop specifically aimed at senior leaders within sports. The aim of the Strategic Safeguarding in Sport Workshop is to support the implementation of safeguarding at the heart of the organisation and to embed participants rights not be to abused.

The workshop is designed to complement the Lead Safeguarding Officer Development Programme – aimed at those whose role it is to manage and oversee safeguarding within sporting organisations.

The Strategic Safeguarding in Sport Workshop is delivered over half a day and will take place on Wednesday  24^th November 2021 (9.30am – 12.30pm). This half day workshop will be delivered online using the Zoom platform.  The cost for the workshop is £250 +VAT per person.

To book a place on the next Workshop please use our online booking system or contact Annabel Timmins, Safeguarding in Sport Lead via email (annabel.timmins@limeculture.co.uk). Maximum number apply so an early booking is recommended.

Please Note- LimeCulture is able to deliver this Workshop to individual organisations (in-house) for senior leadership teams  –  minimum numbers apply.